I have had an amazing year since my family and I left Prague on July 31, 2014. In August 2014 we went to Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. We visited Amber and her dog Paws, in the beautiful Slovakian countryside.

Amber’s garden

We swam in the sparkling Adriatic Sea with our friends in Croatia.

The food was delicious! We swam and ate and ate and swam.

We drove to some interesting seaside towns in Montenegro, and we swam in the beautiful Bay of Kotor.

We visited our Indian friends, Sally and Ram, in Slovenia. They took us to Lake Bohinj, and we had a delicious picnic.

Too cold to swim.

Then we flew to the USA in September and visited friends and family in six different states over the next two months. We visited our friends in Oregon. We visited Auntie Robin at her amazing cabin in the mountains, in California.

We stayed at my little cousins’ house in Indiana. We played legos, and went to the zoo. I had a surprise early birthday party, and I got Angry Birds Star Wars telepods.

I was so surprised because it was a week before my birthday!

We visited my Grandma, Grandpa, and sister in Wisconsin. We stayed at our friends the Zideks’ house. We spent time with friends and family, and celebrated my birthday two more times!

We went out for Mexican food for my birthday. Not my best photo!

We stayed at my cousin Morgan’s house in Minnesota, where we played Gamecube Super Mario Sunshine and card games. Then we visited my grandparents, uncles, and aunt in Texas. We went to NASA in Texas with my uncle and aunt.

The original control room for the Apollo missions.

In November we flew from the US to Prague, and we stayed there a week. We stayed at the Antblads, our good friends from Sweden. We visited my wonderful school. I met my old friends, including my friends David and Robbie. I was sad to leave my great friends.

We flew from Prague to Dubai, and we stayed a few days with the Bevans, our British friends. We swam and played in the Persian Gulf. We saw a camel racing farm in the desert.

I wish we could have seen the camels race!

We went by elevator up the Burj Kalifa building, the tallest building in the world. It is 2,722 feet (830 meters) tall! We saw dozens of the tall, modern buildings. You can read more about our adventure around Dubai here:

Next, we flew to Bangalore, India and stayed with our friends, Martha and Susheel, at their farm. They have five cute dogs, and I liked playing with them. I walked the dogs almost every afternoon by the lake.

On the farm

We went to Susheel’s second farm in the countryside for a weekend. On the way we saw many interesting animals. Indian food is the most yummy food I have ever had.

On the way to Susheel’s other farm.

We visited other friends at their 40 acre farm called Bamboo Banks, located in the jungle. We stayed in a small, cute cottage with a garden. I swam in the pool while Mom was reading in the hammock. I jumped really high on the trampoline.

The horses came by for lunch while I swam.

One morning the monkeys woke us up when they were playing on top of our roof!

On a jeep ride we saw deer, peacocks, wild boars, and monkeys. We watched the elephants eat their food at the elephant camp.

After Bamboo Banks, we stayed three weeks with Granny Ingrid. Every morning Dad and I went swimming in Granny Ingrid’s pool. The Zideks, our American friends, came to Granny Ingrid’s house for Christmas. On Christmas morning I opened my presents. Then we went to a party with fancy cars and delicious food. India was the best vacation ever for me. We spent six weeks in India, and I loved it!

Granny Ingrid

Last Christmas I was really into Super Mario Brothers!

On the way with our not-so-fancy car. Seatbelt laws aren’t the same in India!

This was at the Christmas Day lunch party with Auntie Ingrid’s friends.

We moved to Turkey in late December 2014. In Turkey I went to a new school . We love having guests and showing them cool places nearby.

We hiked up a mountain to see Termessos!

We like going on boat rides with guests!

We went to Side to see the ruins. There is a nice beach here, too.

I went camping twice in Cirali; once with my school, and once with our church. This is the cabin I shared with three boys.

The mountains are not far away.

It has been a good year. I like living in Antalya. I like the mountains, the nice breeze, the sea, and the ice cream (dondurma). You would love it if you came here.

During this season of travel we had a wonderful opportunity to visit friends who recently moved to Dubai. While looking for flights from Prague to India, we noted that many went through Dubai…in fact it was only $200 from Prague to Dubai! So we took the opportunity to visit our friends Mike and Catherine and their boys for a weekend. They live outside of the city, not far from the beach.

That’s the Persian Gulf!

I never thought I’d watch our son play with friends in the waters of the Persian Gulf!!

Also known as the Arabian Gulf in the UAE.

The next day our friends took us to see a camel race track!

Here are the race camels…

And here’s our gang:)

Catherine told us they once were invited to see a race. She had expected to watch the race from the stands; however, she was surprised to discover that the race was watched while in a car speeding alongside the camels, yelling encouragement to your favored camel (go, Orange!!)…amongst other speeding cars full of people cheering for their camels! Wish we could have experienced that!!

Apparently the camels are ridden by robot jockeys during the race…no, I’m not making it up!

Next, they took us to the desert. I mean, the real desert, with enormous sand dunes. We got there by four wheel driving…slipping, sliding, and bumping our way over the dunes to “their dune”. It felt just like driving across snow. There were no tracks, no parking lot, just follow the old race track and then veer off until we found this place…

The kids had a blast jumping off the dunes, running, climbing, and digging in the sand. It was so soft, like baby powder!!

The adults enjoyed chillin’ while the kids played…

Quite an amazing view!

We watched the sun get lower in the sky, but had to head home while it was still light.

Good-bye, desert!

Then there was a great sunset to top off a really great day as we headed home…